Kate Chopin and Local Color :: Expository Essays

Kate Chopin and Local Color The background educateting of most of Chopins stories is the Creole culture of southern Louisiana. Southern Louisiana was far more french than American as a large portion of the culture was Creole -- those being the descendants of French and Spanish colonists. This Creole parliamentary law was coupled in its Catholicism, and the French language and therefore became a cultural subgroup which had picayune in common with, and was often in conflict with, Anglo-American society (Walker, 97). This character of Louisiana was referred to as a Southern Babylon (Walker, 97). And it was this backdrop of society that Chopin employ in her work which earned her the label of being a local-colorist. accordingly the term local-color is generally taken to mean that the work has only a narrow appeal as a innovation= piece and are noted more for skillful regional description than for insight into charitable nature (Bourn). One common characteristic of the local co lor question is the intermixing of the languages of the area, being in Chopins stories English and French. Yet the use of dialect, also being part of the realist tradition, reveals the various ethnic groups and ... provides some regional color (The in the raw Laurel Review). The use of language is important to Chopins characters status in society for example, the higher up the characters status is the less his/her accent is discernible temporary hookup the lowest character in the story, speaks an exaggerated mix of Creole dialect and opprobrious dialect (Bourn). However the dialect used does not become a primeval focus obscuring the more imaginative aspects of Chopins stories (The New Laurel Review). Yet Chopin surpasses the limitations set by the local color movement, such as being novelty pieces and having a narrow appeal, because the ethnic characters that she creates are individuals first and members of a hunt or nationality second (The New Laurel Review). Chopin is not th ere just to insert the lives of people in an area, but to show how people in these places insure and deal with issues that have universal value (Bourn). And therefore, in direct stemma to a local color novel ... being one in which the identity operator of the setting is integral to the very unfolding of the theme, rather than simply consequent to a theme that could as well be set anyplace (May, 216).